Photo: Zeynel Cebeci, CC BY-SA 4.0

Manzume 47 — Kapu kim açdı Müfettihü'l-ebvâb

Amasya05 Editorial Board • Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk • 01 October 2026 • Updated: 14 October 2026 • 3 min reading

Two couplets closing the chapter in which the tekfur of Konur is ambushed and the fortress surrendered, Gallipoli is taken by agreement and Yakub Ece and Gazi Fâzıl are given lands.

Contents 4

1Original Ottoman Turkish Text
2In English
3Literary and Historical Commentary
4Bibliography

Original Ottoman Turkish Text

Kapu kim açdı Müfettihü'l-ebvâb
Fâzıl u hem Ece oldı aña bâb

Ki Rum oldı sarây u hem hazîne
Gerekdür kim Süleymân koya bevvâb

In English

1. He who opens all gates opened the gate; Fâzıl and Ece too became a gate for it.

2. Rûm (Rumelia) became a palace and a treasury; Süleyman must set a gatekeeper (over it).

Literary and Historical Commentary

Konur and Gallipoli

In the fortieth chapter the fortress of Konur falls through an ambush. Its tekfur, returning after carrying off men from the district of Gallipoli, falls into Süleyman Paşa's ambushes; Gazi Fâzıl pursues him, and just as he is about to enter his fortress the tekfur is caught. The infidels with him are put to the sword, and the tekfur is brought before the fortress and shown to its people. The people of the fortress hand it over to Süleyman Paşa and the tekfur is beheaded; Hacı İlbegi is placed in the fortress. Seeing this, the tekfur of Gallipoli understands that all around him has fallen to the Turks and surrenders by agreement. The province is given to Yakub Ece, and Gazi Fâzıl with him. The author says that the tombs of both lie at a known place at the near end of the plain of Ece.

Gate and Gatekeeper

The image of a gate carries both couplets from start to finish. "Müfettihü'l-ebvâb", the Opener of gates, is one of the attributes of God and a name used in morning prayers. God has opened the gate of Rumelia, and Fâzıl and Ece have become the leaves of that gate. In the second couplet the land of Rûm is imagined as a palace and treasury; such a palace needs a gatekeeper, "bevvâb", and Süleyman Paşa is expected to appoint one. The image of the gate also matches the idea of Gallipoli as a passage opening onto Rumelia. The rhyme is made with three Arabic words: ebvâb, bâb, bevvâb; all three come from the same root (b-w-b), and this derivation turns the two-couplet piece into a tight play on words.